Added value of tumor-stroma ratio to postsurgery circulating tumor DNA and pTN stage in risk stratification of patients with stage III colon cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patients with stage III colon cancer (CC) are routinely treated with resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT). Half of patients are cured by surgery alone and overtreated with ACT, yet another ∼30% experience disease recurrence. Upfront risk stratification requires biomarkers beyond the conventional pathological stage (pTN). Detection of postsurgery circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is indicative of minimal residual disease and prognostic of recurrence. However, its negative predictive value is insufficient to guide treatment de-escalation. This study aimed to investigate whether adding tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) can improve patient risk stratification.

Patients and methods

This study included 206 patients from PLCRC-PROVENC3 based on radical resection of stage

SUBMITTER: Franken IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12805340 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature